{"id":614,"date":"2015-12-02T09:00:58","date_gmt":"2015-12-01T22:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/catesings.org\/?p=614"},"modified":"2015-12-02T09:00:58","modified_gmt":"2015-12-01T22:00:58","slug":"advent-calendar-day-4-jesus-christ-the-apple-tree-elizabeth-poston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/2015\/12\/02\/advent-calendar-day-4-jesus-christ-the-apple-tree-elizabeth-poston\/","title":{"rendered":"Advent Calendar Day 4 – Jesus Christ the Apple Tree (Elizabeth Poston)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continuing our apple theme from yesterday, here’s a modern carol that feels a bit medieval.\u00a0 The lyrics are from an 18th century poem whose author is unknown except for the initials ‘R.H.’, and they aren’t strictly Christmassy, but that hasn’t stopped the choirs of King’s and St. John’s Colleges Cambridge and Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland (among, surely, many others) from including it in carol services, so as far as I’m concerned, this makes it fair game for an advent calendar!<\/p>\n

I actually found two settings of this poem, and had a difficult choice deciding which one to feature.\u00a0 On the one hand, we had this beautiful, reflective, 20th-century-trying-to-be-medieval setting by Elizabeth Poston, which is very sweet and restful and suits the lyrics, and is, in fact, the version of the carol that I fell in love with.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Cm3fZDZxiko<\/a><\/p>\n

And then on the other hand, it turns out that a chap called Jeremiah Ingalls got there first in the early 19th century, with this incredibly jolly version that I am now absolutely desperate to sing, even though every part of me that has any sort of musical sensibility kind of secretly knows that it is completely the wrong sort of tune for these words.\u00a0 I’m sorry, but if you are singing about how you are going to take your rest under Jesus Christ the Apple Tree, perhaps you should consider not being quite so energetic about it?\u00a0 Or is that why you need to take your rest?<\/p>\n

So you are getting Elizabeth Poston, because I think she understood the spirit of the poem rather better than Jolly Jeremiah Ingalls.\u00a0 But if you want to know what has me so fascinated about the latter, you can follow this link to find out<\/a>…<\/p>\n

Jesus Christ the Apple Tree<\/p>\n

The tree of life my soul hath seen
\nLaden with fruit and always green
\nThe trees of nature fruitless be
\nCompared with Christ the apple tree.<\/p>\n

His beauty doth all things excel
\nBy faith I know but ne’er can tell
\nThe glory which I now can see
\nIn Jesus Christ the apple tree.<\/p>\n

For happiness I long have sought
\nAnd pleasure dearly I have bought
\nI missed of all but now I see
\n‘Tis found in Christ the apple tree.<\/p>\n

I’m weary with my former toil
\nHere I will sit and rest a while
\nUnder the shadow I will be
\nOf Jesus Christ the apple tree.<\/p>\n

This fruit does make my soul to thrive
\nIt keeps my dying faith alive
\nWhich makes my soul in haste to be
\nWith Jesus Christ the apple tree.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continuing our apple theme from yesterday, here’s a modern carol that feels a bit medieval.\u00a0 The lyrics are from an 18th century poem whose author is unknown except for the initials ‘R.H.’, and they aren’t strictly Christmassy, but that hasn’t stopped the choirs of King’s and St. John’s Colleges Cambridge and Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[44,213,358],"class_list":["post-614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-apple-tree-carol","tag-elizabeth-poston","tag-jesus-christ-the-apple-tree"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catesings.catespeaks.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}